I sit down to a late breakfast, having forced myself to lie, if not sleep, in until 9am or so. I've revised my opinion of Ginger and Spice: She is definitely on his payroll. I enjoy a chat with my Malaysian neighbours who recommend an excellent-value boat trip to James Bond Island and promise to leave the name of the company at reception.
I channel fond pinings for my boy into a peek-a-boo game with kleine Shirley, who reclines in her pushchair opposite me, chomping on her pacifier. Oops, the pacifier has hit the deck and been replaced with a foot.
Shirley’s statuesque Mutti is looking haggard. Her lobster glow, from days of determined rotissering on the beach, is slowly turning into a healthier shade of tan. But Mum has bags under eyes which betray a lack of night sleep. She also smokes, and little Shirley, who sleeps separately, has a diet consisting of formula, not Mummy milk, and titbits from the breakfast table, already at only one year of age. I long to convey how much easier and comparatively peaceful it is to co-sleep and offer the breast for as long as possible. Five years on, I still recall lying in a state of cosy semi-slumber all night, with a nipple at the ready, to soothe away the beginnings of any plaintive wailing. The irreplaceable bonding that comes with spooning the soft-bottomed infant body against the curves of me, the perfumed tang of my beloved little one’s sweaty hair about my chin and nostrils.
I brave the TV one night when I’m too pooped to do much else, but unable to sleep. Although it is designed for the tourists, its pickings are slim and its content pretty dire. The only tolerable channels are Discovery (wildlife shows); BBC Global news (which unfortunately broadcasts news of war zones uncomfortably near here); and Fox Movies. I think I’ll pass on Abe Lincoln: Vampire Slayer.
By chance, a documentary feature comes on BBC, about the increased interest in breastfeeding in Asia since the Fontera botulism scare. A hospital midwife from Hong Kong, who has been successfully heading a ‘breast is best’ campaign, is interviewd, along with a new pro-nursing Mum. The mother is adamant that she doesn’t trust multinational formula companies, since the scandal. It is a coup that I celebrate silently with them.
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